By Mike Finger :
May 27, 2014
: Updated: May 27, 2014 11:40pm

Texas women's coach Bev Kearney celebrates with team after the Longhorns won the team title in the NCAA Track & Field Championships at Sacramento State's Hornet Stadium in Sacramento, Calif. on Saturday, June 11, 2005.

AUSTIN — The University of Texas must provide former women's track and field coach Bev Kearney with records including the disciplinary files of other employees alleged to have had consensual relationships with students or subordinates, a state district judge ruled Tuesday.

But in a legal victory for UT, the records — including those pertaining to former assistant football coach Major Applewhite and former football staffer Cleve Bryant — will be covered by a protective order preventing them from being released to the public. Judge Orlinda Naranjo of the 419th district court also ruled UT will be allowed to redact the names and identifying information of any students in the records to comply with federal privacy laws.

Last November, Kearney filed a lawsuit alleging UT discriminated against her based on race and gender and retaliated against her by forcing her to resign in December 2012. The suit says damages are worth at least $1 million.

Kearney, whose suspension and dismissal came after UT learned of an alleged relationship she had with a student-athlete a decade earlier, attended Tuesday's court hearing but did not speak to reporters.

Her lawsuit alleges that other UT coaches and professors have carried on similar relationships with students and subordinates without the same level of discipline that Kearney did. One of her attorneys, Jody Mask, said Tuesday that Kearney has a right to access personnel files and disciplinary reports related to other such cases.

UT's attorneys, David Beck and Chris Cowan, argued those files are protected by the Federal Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) because they include student information. In a decision that made neither side completely happy, Naranjo ruled UT had to hand over the documents, but granted the protective order to keep them confidential.

“This is a public university with public funds,” Mask said. “I think they're overreaching in terms of confidentiality.”

Butch Hayes, an attorney representing Applewhite, attended the hearing as an “interested observer.” In February 2013, UT disclosed Applewhite “engaged in inappropriate, consensual behavior with an adult student one time” at the 2009 Fiesta Bowl. He received a disciplinary note in his file but wasn't fired or suspended.

Applewhite, who was not retained by new UT football coach Charlie Strong when he took over in January, will participate in the Kearney case's first deposition, scheduled for June 19. The next day, former UT track athlete Raasin McIntosh will be deposed, Mask said.

For now, those depositions will be confidential under Naranjo's order.

Mask said that in the university's response to Kearney's request for the names of other employees who'd been disciplined for alleged relationships with students or subordinates, UT named Applewhite and Bryant, who was fired after claims of sexual harassment in 2011. Baseball operations staffer Drew Bishop, still at UT, also was listed as having such a relationship.

Naranjo did not rule on a UT motion that would have prevented Kearney from referencing events that took place before Sept. 9, 2012 — 180 days before she filed a discrimination charge.